Facebook Timeline – how it’s starting to impact brands

So today is the day that timeline for Pages becomes permanent and social media management platform provider, Wildfire, have released some very interesting research about how timeline has impacted the launch partner’s pages as well as a large number of other diverse pages. We’ve spent a bit of time distilling the main points down here for you to give you a taster as to how pages have been affected by the changes.

The pages were assessed BEFORE timeline was adopted on the 29th Feb and a month after. Engagement comparisons were then made between the two periods. It’s worth bearing in mind that the real acid test will be a month from today – once all pages have had the chance to adopt and adapt to timeline.

So what are the big learnings?

In all but the top volume pages, engagement figures have had a marked increase, whilst 10m+ pages have seen a general decline in all engagement areas.

So what content is now seeing the most engagement?

The data analysed 4,800 posts over the month from which we can draw the following conclusions:

Pre-timeline

Status updates were the best ways to generate likes and comments, outperforming the next best post type by 21.8% and 17% respectively

Video posts were the best way to generate shares, outperforming the next best type of post by 69.5%

Post-timeline

Status updates continue to generate the most likes, outperforming the next best post type by 21.1%

Photos are marginally better than status updates at generating comments, generating more comments by 8.3%

Videos are now comfortably the very best way of generating shares, beating the next best post type, photos by 90%

The BIG takeaway: Timeline is clearly working best for visual media. Dig out as much visual content as you can. Consider also, in your new posts, how you can tie in a visual to support the status.

What about Pinned Posts and Features Posts?

At this early stage, there is a mixed message. This table compares pre-timeline posts and compares them to the subsequent featured and pinned posts.

It’s pretty clear that whilst featured (full width) posts have little impact on likes and comments, they are significantly the most shared type of format.

Photos as pinned posts are achieving significant value across likes and shares types – but use them wisely. In many cases at the moment, pinned posts are replacing the like gate to point people to apps so don’t be alarmed if they generate fewer comments than the average.

The BIG takeaway: Use featured video posts to generate the most engagement across the board. At this stage, full-width, quality video is a honey trap for fans – but choose your content wisely. Photos appear to have the most significant impact as pinned posts. Consider how you might use this pinning to feature fans or new products, and even replace status updates with a photo to maximize engagement and shares.